Five Little Fish

Though I didn't go swimming with any fish on my recent trip to Nicaragua, I was at the ocean, and there are sharks in Lake Nicaragua, so I'm posting this in honor of my trip anyway!  You may recognize that awesome shark from his original debut at Piper Loves the Library, but the fish are all mine.  Or, well, at least copied from a google search of clip art!  I love the way the collage method makes their colors stand out.  

The children always look a little hesitant when I pull such a grumpy looking shark out of his storage bag. But I place my finger over his furrowed brow and show them how different he looks--and then we all start wiggling our eyebrows at each other and talking about things that make us happy or grumpy or surprised, and once we finally get back on track to do the shark stories, everyone's feeling much more at ease!

Here are the poems and songs we typically do with this set.  I believe I found these both at Perpetual Preschool ages and ages ago.

Five Little Fish/Teasing Mr. Shark

Five little fishies swimming in the sea, (encourage the kids to 'swim' their hands)

Teasing Mr. Shark--"You can't catch me!" (thumbs on temples, fingers waving in air)

Along comes Mr. Shark as quiet as can be (swim him behind the board with fin showing, and the kids can put their hands up like a fin, too!)

And SNAPS that fish right out of the sea! (Kids clap on 'snaps' and shark/teacher removes one fish)

Continue on, counting down.  I always like to give the option of a happy ending if anyone seems upset.  Sometimes we ask Mr. Shark if he's eaten the fish, and he answers with grunts, keeping his mouth tightly closed!  Eventually we tell him a joke so he laughs, and all the fish come swimming right on out :)  Or something along those lines...

This particular set isn't for sale, but please check out my shop with many of my other sets:

Flannel Board Fun Shop

Five Little Fish (this one doesn't use the shark)
(sung to London Bridge;)

Five little fish swimming by the shore,
By the shore, by the shore,
One got caught, then there were four, four little fish.

Four little fish swimming in the sea,
In the sea, in the sea,
One got caught, then there were three, three little fish.

Three little fish swimming in the blue,
In the blue, in the blue,
One got caught, then there were two, two little fish.

Two little fish swimming in the sun,
In the sun, in the sun,
One got caught, then there was one, one little fish.

One little fish swimming straight for home,
Straight for home, straight for home.
Decided he would never roam, smart little fish.

This week you'll find the Flannel Friday roundup at Catch the Possibilities and of course you'll find lots of other ideas at Flannel Friday's blog or Pinterest page.